» Repeat

Hello All,

I have been answering emails al ot lately, I have to tell you we have some passionate visitors!

This question came up 3 times, so I’ll post it here.

Will the Phillies Repeat in 2009? In your opinion of course…

Well I love answering reader questions! So let’s go!

As a Mets fan, my answer is NO! Ok, Ok just kidding. Let’s have a fair talk here.

Repeat? Not in my opinion!

The Phillies were definately a surprise in 2008, they had the fight and the edge that brought them through all the way to the end of a very long and tough season. The Mets faltered as usual, and
there you had it, the Phillies were the champs. They phought the tough phight and won (Phillies plug haha).

This season will be very different though. Even as a Mets fan, I feel the champ will come out of the AL this year. I do not feel the Phillies will win the East again, but may sneak is as the wild card.
The talent it still there, and the heart as well, but I simply dont see a repeat coming.

Again, I would go into more details, but I want to leave the floor open to you, the reader, and you the wonderful authors here at MajorLeagueBlogging.com.

So…Let’s hear it!

Let’s face it, the Phillies weren;t exactly the baseball “Experts” pick to win it all last year, but it happened. It happened because the Phillies simply found ways to get the job done. They won because they deserved to, plain and simple.

As a die hard Mets fan myself, I must take my hat off to the Phils, it is the “Never Give Up, Never Surrender” attitude, and that bullpen, that truly carried them though to the end. As I look back now, I realize that uncertainty is simply the only true certainty before a Major League Baseball season starts.

These in-season wins certainly led to some off season ones for the fightin’  Phils as well.

“The interest this offseason has been very, very strong, and there’s no question that has enabled us to perhaps be more aggressive than we might have been otherwise,” Phillies president David Montgomery said Monday from his corner office at Bright House Field.

Try to imagine the following possibilities: What if the Phillies failed to sweep the Brewers in their four game series? What if they didn’t win the National League East? What if the Brewers overtook them for the National League Wild Card?

Could the Phillies sign Ryan Howard? Or Cole Hamel’s multi-million contract extension? What about the three year $31.5 million offer to Raul Ibanez to replace Pat Burrell?

“We probably wouldn’t be sitting here saying we know we have sold nearly 24,000 season tickets,” Montgomery said. “It would probably be a number similar to last year, maybe not even as strong. So we would have definitely been doing the offseason differently. I don’t know if it would have manifested itself in multiyear deals or whether it would have manifested itself in not being able to add a player like Ibanez.

“It’s tough for me to able to say specifically what would have been different, but the answer is, yes, it absolutely would have been different. We are where we are because of the team’s success and the resulting fan support.”

So now, I must ask…what are the odds of another Phillies championship this year? Any Phillies, Mets. or any other fans out there care to comment?